Julius Karl Matthias Hoch
(07.08.1863 - 18.02.1930)
place of birth:  Dresden
Königreich Sachsen:  Div-Kdr,  Generalleutnant ch.


Saxon general Matthias Hoch was a division-level commander during the Great War. Hoch began his military career in Dresden in 1881 and by August 1914 had risen to the rank of Oberst with command of an infantry regiment. As the War got underway, he marched his troops of the 103rd Regiment into neutral Belgium. As part of Saxony's 3. Infanterie-Division Nr. 32, his regiment was thus involved in actions which led to the "sacking of Dinant," a village in northern France where German forces executed several hundred civilians.

The following week, Oberst Hoch was wounded in action but recovered quickly enough to lead his men in successful engagements along the River Aisne. For this he was decorated with the Ritterkreuz (Knight's Cross) of Saxony's highest military order - the Militär-St. Heinrichs-Orden. Thereafter, Generalmajor Hoch led an Imperial German infantry division and in the spring of 1917 was redeployed to the Eastern Front to command Saxony's 1. Landwehr-Division Nr. 45.  In September 1918, Hoch retired from active service and received the brevet rank of Generalleutnant. Following the ceasing of hostilities, the victorious French government tried Generalleutnant Hoch in absentia for his part in the massacre at Dinant. He was convicted and symbolically received the death penalty, a sentence which was never carried out.

	Generalleutnant	02.09.1918  (charakter)
	Militär-St. Heinrich	15.10.1914  Ritter